Keegan

Opinion: Naadir Tharpe takes Bill Self on wild ride … to the Sweet 16

Kansas guard Naadir Tharpe looks for the applause from the crowd as he leaves the court following the Jayhawks' 70-58 win over North Carolina, Sunday, March 24, 2013 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.

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Kansas basketball v. North Carolina

Images from Sunday's game against North Carolina at the Sprint Center.

While others sweated watching him, Tharpe played with the confidence of a man convinced that in the end everything would be just fine. He made sure of it. Mixing addled plays with brilliant ones, Tharpe had far more of the latter and helped Kansas storm from 11 points down to reach the Sweet 16 with a 70-58 victory against North Carolina.

On a day KU seniors Jeff Withey and Travis Releford relentlessly dominated at both ends in the second half, Kansas needed one of its underclassmen to join the party. On this day it wasn’t going to be either Ben McLemore (0-for-9, two points) or Perry Ellis (1-for-3, three points).

Tharpe answered the call, overshadowing his spills with thrills that chilled the partisan Kansas crowd.

A 5-foot-11 sophomore guard from Worcester, Mass., Tharpe scored all of his 12 points in a second half in which he made all three of his three-point shots. He also made three of four free throws in the half.

And then there were the plays that made his coach hold his head to keep it from exploding.

Instead of laying the ball in, Tharpe fired an off-target behind-the-back pass that Releford turned into a bucket, but that didn’t keep Self from pointing at Tharpe in frustration. Late in the game, Tharpe picked up one of his four turnovers on a five-second violation.

Tharpe’s most embarrassing moment “will never happen again” he vowed afterward. With Perry Ellis at the free throw line ready to take a second shot, Tharpe was talking to Elijah Johnson about “how to defend the next play” when he absentmindedly walked onto the three-point line, a lane violation. As soon as the whistle blew, a low, harsh voice shot through the still-silent arena. It belonged to Self.

Not long after that, Tharpe did what he had already done twice in the half. He stuck a dagger in North Carolina’s hopes. His first three-pointer gave Kansas a seven-point lead, the second a 12-point lead, the third, of the step-back variety, a 13-point advantage with 5:24 remaining.

Tharpe spent much of the second half playing in place of McLemore and when Tharpe checked out of the game in the final minute, Self gave him a hug and a pat on the backside and, according to Tharpe, Self told him, “You made some bone-headed plays, but wow, you played great for us today.”

After the buzzer sounded and KU’s record improved to 8-0 in Sprint Center games this season, Self walked with Tharpe to the spot of his violation and repeated his message.

“He said the same thing about the bone-headed play and once again he said, ‘You played great. You really showed toughness.'"

Tharpe, who looked very much like an overwhelmed freshman a year ago, has played with so much confidence this season.

We all see Self shaking his head at Tharpe’s miscues during games, but we’re not privy to other moments when the coach tells him what he thinks of his game.

“He comes up to me a lot and talks to me about how he wants me to be aggressive and always tells me how I’m a good player and how I’m a great shooter,” Tharpe said. “When your coach tells you that, it’s hard for you not to play with confidence. He’s been here a long time and he’s been around some great players. For him to say that to me, I feel like that’s how I have to play, and I need to do as much as I can to help him out.”

Not done with his 10th season at Kansas, Self has won 300 games for the school. You don’t do that without knowing how to balance climbing all over every player’s imperfection daily while still managing to inflate your players’ confidence levels.

Tharpe and the rest of the team combined to make 25 percent of their shots in the first half, 63 percent in the second.

I'd like to see Releford on Burke, EJ on Stauskus and BMac on Hardaway Jr. Hardaway has been their scorer the last few games, but Burke and Stauskus seem due to make shots this time around. All 3 are pretty crafty, but I don't think Hardaway Jr will be as aggressive taking it into the paint if he's an athlete like BMac on him. EJ should be able to stick Stauskus tight and TRele is our best hope at keeping Burke from going off. Young is actually a pretty good matchup with GRobIII. Withey is going to take a beating in this one, hopefully the refs call their bigs for trying to shove him around 'cause I'm sure they will.

Last year, I honestly wondered if Tharpe would be on the team this year. My bad!
Isn't it clear that we are much better with Tharpe at the point and EJ at the 2?
Ben can take a big NBA check or stay a year and have a long and wealthy NBA career. IMHO, I believe The NBA would eat Ben up should he leave now.
What a great second half. Rock Chalk!

BMac. To stay or to go. Many of these decisions (for better or worse) are driven by financial risk analysis. It ultimately comes down to the following difficult question, to which there is no clear answer:

What's worse? ...

A) To make only $15 million over a career, when you otherwise could have made $150 million.

or

B) To make $0 (due to injury in college), when you otherwise could have made $15 million.

Given Ben's financial situation, I think (B) is worse, thus he should go. But it's his call, and Jayhawk fans should support him either way.

I don't buy these arguments. Name one potential lottery pick in the last decade who has suffered a CAREER-ending injury. Before the OAD era, name a player who has suffered a career-ending injury. The NBA, as well as other professional sports, has had its share of broke former players. Not saying 15 million isn't a lot of money, but due to poor financial decisions made by kids not used to that kind of money, $150 million over $15 million will sure look a lot better when he's ready to retire and live a comfortable lifestyle. To stay in college for one year and risk - probably at worst - a knee injury, is not an entirely bad risk. The real biggest dilemma as I see it is having to wait a year for a paycheck..

I don't think B) is entirely accurate ($15mil vs $0). It's more likely the difference between 6-15 million (paid out over 3 years) if you're in the top 10, versus an injury potentially setting you back to the second round.. If you were Jeffrey Taylor, the 31st pick this year by the Charlotte Bobcats, you'd be making $575,000 with no guarantee, and in his case, benching on a bad team. Rookie contract money aside, the investment a team makes in you over three years means playing time and an opportunity to develop. Nobody cares if a GM/Coach fails to develop their 2nd round draft pick to his fullest potential.

I think most would agree that Ben could greatly benefit from another year in college. If he stayed for more seasoning and development, he would probably have a longer, more accomplished and more financially rewarding NBA career. But there's his family to consider. From what I've read, they are living in poverty. If Ben has the opportunity to make millions immediately, how can he justify waiting a year? I wish he could stay, but I understand if he must go. In any case, I wish him the best...what a great kid!

News media tends to over blow these things, and the deep poverty may have been a few years ago, not now, or at least it is managable. If he can stay and end up earning more money in the NBA and having a better career, then he should stay another year. So many people that a couple million dollars will allow them to retire at a young age. It doesn't. Income taxes, state taxes, agent's fees, costs for a home, cars, gifts, legal fees, etc. are huge.

If he can play 4 more games and he is clearly the reason KU wins it all, then his draft stock will rise back up and then maybe he should go. Otherwise, he really needs to stay. No shame in staying another year in college. Agents will be telling him he needs to go, as they want his money. Pro teams may say they want him, but they will show no mercy in cutting him off if he has problems developing. As long as there is a reasonable amount of development work that Self can do for him to improve his long term NBA career, he should stay.

The defender only has to be within 6 feet. It doesn't matter if the guy with the ball.is dribbling, holding the ball, standing still, or moving forward. It was pretty close, but the guy may have been <6 ft from Tharpe....seems like a long way to be "closely guarded".

For women's college basketball, it's 3 feet and only applies when the offensive player is holding the ball, not dribbling. Go figure.

On a five-second situation, the referee must make a visible count, so the player has no real excuse for being unaware that he needs to advance beyond the marker or make a pass. Very similar to not paying attention where he's standing during a free throw. We just have to hope these 'blank outs' don't happen at critical times – until Naadir comes closer to maturity.

Did the referee make that visible count? As I watched I didn't see it & I usually notice those counts as well as crossing the time line & inbounding the ball. Beyond that, how is it that with 20 seconds to go in any blow out game the ref's never make that count.

Yes, the ref was counting it off and the total time might have been even 6 seconds. To my thinking, the defender was pretty close to 6', but distances can be impossible to determine on TV (without mathematical calculations at least). And the ref who was counting was behind Nadir, so Nadir had no way of knowing he was being timed.

They never count it out to 6ft, most of the time a defender has to be at basically arm's reach for the ref to start counting. If he was counting it was off my screen and directly behind Tharpe so that he had no idea there was a count. It was a bogus call. I guarantee you Tharpe is used to having to get right up on a guy to get the count started. The NCAA needs to actually adjust rules to the way it seems sensible to the officials to call them. Just like the elbow above the shoulders rule, where everyone knows it's ridiculous to make every instance of contact a technical, but that's what the rule says. You get inconsistencies in how the call is made and how often. It's not difficult to change this rule to 3 or 4 ft, where it's normally called at. The fact that the rule actually says 6 astonishes me, but it's still not 100% obvious he was even within the 6 ft. Where do you measure from? Naadir's closest toe, his chest, the ball?

"As soon as the whistle blew, a low, harsh voice shot through the still-silent arena. It belonged to Self." The camera was on Self at the point when he shouted, but we didn't see what happened on the court. On screen Self shouted, "God dammit!", and some in the crowd at Liberty Hall laughed at that, and then we heard about the lane violation.

Yeah, I heard "Goddangit" too although I think he was halfway to saying the more colorful expletive at the time. I don't know why the mike picked up that one moment so well. Anyway, that was a horrendous call, I can't believe that Self wasn't more angry with the refs than at Tharpe, that would have been a good moment for a technical. As for the occaisional muffs from Tharpe, point guards always get the most heat because they handle the ball so much and have a lot of responsibilities like calling plays, directing traffic, etc. so I don't see anything seriously amiss here. Recall that Tyshawn and Elijah also took a lot of heat when playing PG, what I like a lot about Tharpe is that he doesn't seem tp get rattled by it and comes back with big plays. Keep trucking, Tharpe.

Self did not curse. I heard him loud and clear. This game he didn't have to cover his mouth like he did when McLemore got the technical that other game. (That was funny to see. Did anybody notice that?)

Tharpe reminds me of a quieter Sherron Collins. Remember when Sherron would go dribbling deep into the paint and we'd all yell "Whaaa?!?!" Sherron would just stand under the basket dribbling until he found an open shooter or sunk a circus shot.

That's how I feel every time Tharpe heaves an open 3 with 28 left on the shot clock. The similarity is that both players know it's going in, even though I never believe them.

Tharpe has lots of skills and most importantly ball handing, he puts pressure on the defense when he dribbles the ball and that is so important when shots are not falling or to get others open. I like our back court but he is the only one that can penetrate and create whenever he has to, EJ can sometimes but not consistently well. B Mac is so so far from putting pressure on a defense and I agree with an above post in that he will get lost in the NBA shuffle. Naadir is going to be a stud the next couple of years.

I've been saying that all year long. Naa is the kind of guy that can provide easy baskets for our guys. He will make up for his bonehead plays right away - so 4 TOs are easily forgotten if his 12 sparked our rally and bring down Heels' mentals.
PEllis, BMac need to learn from Tharpe, not the seniors. Naa is the closest to them in terms of level of experience on the court. They need to have confidence level just like Naa - I never see him afraid to make mistakes. Just do it.

Ok slow down there. The man AVERAGED 5 points. Has a 2-1 Ast to TO ratio. BMac has had a rough 3 games. EJ hasn't played horrible and has reduced many of his STUPID TO for earlier the year. I am not saying I'm not impressed with some of the things he has done. Let's just not go out and anoint him as the second coming because of 1 good game just like we said EJ is back after one good game. I worry not about next year's lineup, who plays what minutes or who will be starters as much as I worry about us getting past Michigan!!!!

You don't bench ANYONE at this point in the season. Thst would be foolish. The rotation is fine. EJ and BMac just need to stop worrying about failing and go out and ATTACK.

Playing "afraid to lose" is a mentality that almost always results in poor play that results in LOSING. They need to get their brains focused on what they SHOULD be doing and not what they DON'T want to do.

Routine is very important. These kids believe in their rotation and expect it. When you change it, you change their opinion of themselves, not something you want to do now. What is our W-L record again? That tells me everything.

Naadir is going to be, as is, a great point guard for us. He's got great quickness to the hole, handles the ball better than EJ and probably better than Tyshawn, is a great shooter and makes some beautiful passes, especially on the break.

But the best thing about him is that he's a GAMER! He doesn't shy away from the big shot--even last year when he was on Bill's "one&done" list (one mistake and you're done for the day) he still wasn't afraid to let his game fly. He doesn't go into his shell when the game is tight like so many Kansas shooters have in the past (and present). He's not afraid to step up and take the pressure shot. That's priceless!

Naa's gonna get All-Conference consideration next year and All-American consideration when he's a senior.

Although Naadir and Elijah are so turn-over prone that that they BOTH can create a turnover on a dead-ball situation -- ON THEIR OWN TEAM'S FREE THROW SHOT. That takes "turnover prone" to a whole new dimension.

Last year Nadir wasn't even in the equation. This year he's giving quality minutes, made a few clutch shots and moving the offense, and LEARNING. We see what Coach Self has done with guys that have come in unheralded and been turned into real quality players. Tharpe will be a starter next year if he continues to improve.

As for B-Mac, he needs to invest in himself one more year under Coach Self. His present value will explode with more time under his belt here, else he's gonna get one decent contract in the NBA and be done. Paul Pierce...NBA superstart, two years under Coach Roy. Want to say the same about B-Mac under Coach Self...not to be selfish to want him to stay at KU, but for his own benefit.

Thanks for your analysis and encouragement, jaybate. You have an interesting perspective. It's good to know when someone enjoys your stuff. Your sports insights are greatly appreciated. When you slip into your bard persona, I wonder if you've ever read Hamlet on the Holodeck - The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace by Janet H. Murray.

As a visual artist, I'm more influenced by film montage theory as expounded by Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein in his books Film Form and The Film Sense. Creating montage with the limit of a single visual image is an enjoyable challenge. I miss editing 16mm for fun and credit hours.

Somebody PLEASE tell me I'm not imagining this: when Tharpe was recruited, all we heard (from Self, too) was that he was a pure point guard, in the mold of an Aaron Miles or Russell Robinson. But this past year, we're hearing he's almost more of an off guard with a great shot. I'm not questioning Self, I'm quite sure he knows what he's got. But what happened to the pure point guard we recruited. Was this just what everybody saw in high school and reassessed what he truly was when he got in a D1 rotation?

Seeing Tharpe evolve and us all have high hopes for him now for his upper classmen years, makes me wonder if we'll possibly be debating the same things for Frank Mason 2 years from now! :) I hope so. I think Tharpe was technically ranked in the 110's, right? And F. Mason was in the 130's so, at least kind of similar in that regard. Though I think by the end of his season, Mason was being posed as maybe should be ranked higher by so-called "experts". I know they've got a similar build.

This story is about Nadir and his part in one of the most inspiring 180 degree turns
I have ever seen in a college game. Naa's play, the 3's actually lowered my heart rate,
I managed to get through the game yesterday without burning any furniture. (Old
family tradition).

Some people have mentioned Frank Mason, I usually don't make blanket prediction's
but between Nadir and Frank we're going to be fine a point. Frank's ball handling
abilities and speed are sensational. Jayhawks, "take care of each other and win
another", settle for nothing but everything. RCJH KAAAAAUOOOOO

Huge Ballsy Move by Bill Self for sitting McLemore for that long in the second half. Few coaches would have the gonads to do it. Perhaps he learned his lesson from leaning too heavily on Sherron a few years ago in the tourney.

C - Traylor with Embiid and Lucas.{Embiid will work in quick and move Jamari to PF]

WOW... Junior, Soph, RS Soph, Frosh, Frosh starting lineup....we go from one of the most experienced starting fives to one of the youngest!! I don't think anyone redshirts...I think we'll need all hands on deck 2013-14!!!

Agree with everything except Wesley. He's not getting any pt now and with Embiid, Perry, Traylor, and Lucas, he will again be the 5th big and only get mop up duty unless there is an injury. If Wesley is in the rotation, Im sorry, we're in trouble. Dont get me wrong, I like Wesley and he's athletic, but he doesnt have the skills and is more foul prone than any KU player I can remember. He couldnt even start at Lamar.

He played 8.6 mins per game. Mostly mop up duty or foul trouble because we had no depth. Travis played some at the 4 for that exact reason if you remember. Im just saying he's the least talented of our bigs and foul prone. Look at his stats.

You ever notice when bills at his highest level of frustration with Tharpe he goes out and hits a 3? Some players do better when they're told how good they are in a nice way. I think Tharpe responds better to tough love.

I said long time ago that Naa is the best point g since Jo Jo White. People laughed at me. Understandable but, go look on u tube and put in his name and see yourself. I got to shake hands with Jo Jo when i was six in Allen.

I watched Jo Jo at KU's summer bball camp in 1974. In one play, he stole the ball playing three on three and was so fast that I really didnt' see it. It's just that in a blink of an eye, he and the ballhandler switched positions.

When he plays juiced up, the rest of the team plays juiced up. What a benefit to have a juiced up point guard coming off the bench when the opposing defense is out of juice and our seven foot juice-man is ready to squeeze some oranges at ten and twelve feet.

I can see Naa becoming my favorite player, to finally replace Tyshawn, who was becoming my favorite later in his Sophomore year.

Naa just needs some more consistency in his shooting. He will miss everything, then he has games like last night. I rarely get upset when he shoots a three, even when he is missing, as I know he can hit them, but some of his driving to the basket drives me nuts. But Ty was much like that. Fact is, to get better, you have to push yourself, and you make mistakes when you push yourself hard. And while he can practice pushing himself in practice, it is not the same as in a real game with people you aren't familiar with. So, every time he drives to the basket and dribbles it off his foot and throws up a prayer, keep in mind he is learning and that will make him better. The alternative is to not make the attempt out of fear he will screw up, and thus never get much better. Maybe BMac needs to take a lesson here.

Michigan has talent we have the system.
It will come to sight lines in the big Jones stadium, we should practice with large mirrors on the walls this week to make it hard to focus and find our rim/net sight lines, then in the dome, it will be natural.
Sort of similar to home bowling teams using heavier pins.

On similar note, anyone else notice the rims at Sprint are not balanced, the 1st half for us, has much smaller scoring in B12 as well as NCAA games. We got the large rim the 2nd half. Take all the games add up all the points and see our 2nd half basket up by 18- 24% is my guess.